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Ten years into serving time for her mother’s murder, famous party girl Janie Jenkins is released from jail on a technicality. Everyone in Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little thinks Janie is guilty. They might be right. Janie can’t remember how she ended up next to her mother’s body covered in blood…

“I just love finding new places to wear diamonds,” said Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Director Howard Hawks’ style and Jane Russell’s sharp delivery, with Marilyn’s iconic performance of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” make this female buddy film a lighthearted pleasure.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is superbly written almost in a poetic way. In 1939 Germany, Death has never been busier, yet it’s captivated by a young orphan who learns to find comfort in the written word. After the Nazis burn the town’s books, Liesel steals from the mayor’s own library and shares with a Jewish man hiding in her home. You will not be able to put this book down because of its award-winning writing.

Adapted from Jules Feiffer’s play, 1971’s Little Murders is a pitch-black paranoid satire which follows a couple and their supremely dysfunctional family through an absurdly (and disquietingly) chaotic New York City. Don’t miss Donald Sutherland’s legendary extended cameo as an unorthodox wedding officiant.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin is the tale of a man who owns a bookstore and loves only books. One day a baby is abandoned in his shop and slowly his life changes. Treat yourself to a heartwarming celebration of the stories in each of our lives.

In Kate Racculia’s Bellweather Rhapsody, high school musicians and their chaperones gather for a music festival at a huge old hotel. It’s the 15-year anniversary of a shocking crime in Room 712, a blizzard is approaching, and one of the students disappears. This unique premise drew me in, but the sharp writing and eccentric characters kept me hooked.

Moonwalking with Einstein follows the year-long journey of one man training to compete in the U.S. Memory Championship. Foer has no previous training, no special abilities, and often forgets where he puts his keys, but he becomes a memory champion. This book includes a fascinating look at the cultural history of memory, a cast of remarkable people, and amazing feats of memory.

Twenty-five years ago, Boston had the dirtiest harbor in America. After generations of dumping waste directly into the harbor, the sea floor was coated with a “black mayonnaise” layer of sewage. In the 1990s, the city undertook a state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant with a 10-mile tunnel designed to carry waste out of the harbor and into the sea. When a series of bad decisions, engineering problems, and clashing corporations endangered the project, a team of five commercial divers was called upon to rescue the clean-up effort. Not all of them came back alive. This book is really their story. Even if you don’t normally read nonfiction, this action-filled account makes it hard to put down. And if you like your nonfiction fast-paced and suspenseful, Trapped Under the Sea is the perfect book for you.

Vivian Maier was an area nanny whose ubiquitous camera captured life in Chicago in the mid-century. Her rich, evocative work remained unnoticed until 2007 when thousands of negatives were purchased at a storage unit auction. Curiosity in the woman and appreciation for her work have since skyrocketed. Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows offers a glimpse at her talent, and the new DVD Finding Vivian Maier attempts to shed light on the artist.

It’s not often that I read a novel that I know is going to make me cry and actually like it! Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You is the story of two unlikely people who meet and fall in love. Sounds simple, but there is absolutely nothing simple about it.